By Michael Throneberry, founder of Throneberry Law Group
For most of the twentieth century, Waukegan’s lakefront was home to one of the largest asbestos-products factories in the country. The Johns-Manville plant made asbestos building materials there for decades, and the people who produced them, along with their families, often carried the health risk home without knowing it.
At Throneberry Law Group, we help Waukegan and Lake County families connect a mesothelioma diagnosis to a specific job site like Johns-Manville. Michael Throneberry founded the firm after his father-in-law died of mesothelioma, and he trained as a civil and environmental engineer before turning that technical eye toward asbestos cases. We also work alongside our broader team of Illinois mesothelioma lawyers.
The Johns-Manville Plant on Waukegan’s Lakefront
Johns-Manville manufactured building products on the shore of Lake Michigan in Waukegan from 1928 until operations ended in 1998, and it used asbestos in those products until 1985. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the site includes a 150-acre asbestos disposal area where about three million cubic yards of asbestos waste were left behind. The EPA added the site to its Superfund National Priorities List in 1983, and the former manufacturing buildings were demolished in 2000 and 2001.
Few workplaces put people in closer, more constant contact with raw asbestos than a plant that made asbestos products all day. The company, now handled through the Johns-Manville bankruptcy trust, is one of the most heavily litigated names in asbestos history.
Who Was Exposed
The risk reached far beyond the production line. Workers who mixed and handled raw fiber faced the heaviest exposure, but so did the trades that built, maintained, and eventually tore down the plant. Those at highest risk included:
Production and mixing crews: the workers who handled raw asbestos fiber every shift
Insulators and laborers: who cut and installed asbestos board, cement, and pipe covering
Maintenance and demolition workers: who disturbed asbestos during repairs and the plant teardown
Family members: exposed to fibers carried home on work clothing, hair, and tools
If your history, or a loved one’s, touches any of these roles, the connection to Johns-Manville may be stronger than you think.
Take-home exposure was especially common at a plant like this. Fibers settled into hair and clothing and rode home each night, which is why spouses who did the laundry and children who greeted a parent at the door sometimes developed mesothelioma decades later, without ever setting foot in the plant.
Asbestos Products Identified at This Site
Beyond Johns-Manville’s own asbestos line, made on site as transite pipe and board and as pipe and block insulation, the bankruptcy trusts document other manufacturers’ asbestos products installed at this plant. Babcock and Wilcox boilers and block insulation, Fibreboard’s Pabco pipe and block insulation, Eagle-Picher insulating cements, and Keene Corporation thermal insulation were all used at the Waukegan operation. A trust’s approval of this site is the company’s own admission that its asbestos was here, an admission these companies do not give up freely.
Illnesses Linked to Johns-Manville Asbestos
Breathing asbestos fiber over months or years can cause mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer, among other diseases. These illnesses share a long latency period, so symptoms often appear 20, 30, or more than 40 years after the exposure. Many former Waukegan workers are only now learning that a recent diagnosis traces back to a plant they left decades ago. Because the disease surfaces so late, a diagnosis today can still be tied to work done in the 1960s or 1970s, which is exactly the kind of history we reconstruct.
Legal Options for Johns-Manville Workers and Families
Johns-Manville filed for bankruptcy in 1982 and set up one of the first asbestos bankruptcy trusts, which still pays claims today. That trust is often only part of a case, because most workers were exposed to products from several companies, and some of those companies can still be sued. We help families pursue every source of compensation, from trust claims to a lawsuit against solvent defendants. The Manville trust pays only a percentage of a scheduled claim value, so pursuing the other responsible companies alongside it usually makes a real difference in the outcome.
The Cleanup and Ongoing Concern
The EPA cleanup consolidated and capped the asbestos waste, with the main work finishing in 2017, but the agency continues to monitor the site through periodic five-year reviews, including a sixth review in 2023. During the cleanup, crews found several additional areas of asbestos contamination outside the original plant fence line. For families in the area, that history is a reminder that the risk was never limited to the shop floor.
What Waukegan Families Should Do Now
If you or a family member worked at Johns-Manville, or lived near the plant, write down the years involved, the jobs held, and any products you remember. Old pay stubs, union records, and Social Security earnings statements all help. If there is a cough that will not go away, chest pain, or trouble breathing, see a doctor and mention the asbestos history. Catching disease early gives families more choices, both medically and legally, and it helps us build a stronger claim.
Waukegan Asbestos Attorneys at Throneberry Law Group
The Johns-Manville plant left a long shadow over Waukegan, and the families living with asbestos disease deserve answers about where it came from. We combine careful jobsite investigation with the personal commitment of an attorney who has felt this loss in his own family.
We take these cases on a contingency fee, we travel to you, and we serve Spanish-speaking families. If you or someone you love worked at or near Johns-Manville, start a free, no-obligation case review through our online contact form.